My trip from Canberra to Melbourne took a little over 8 hours. Not too bad considering I wont be on another Greyhound Bus until I leave San Francisco in June. I arrived in Melbourne in the evening and had to catch a tram to my hostel. I managed that no problems and was soon checked in. Travelling still takes it out of me, even after the 3,500 kms I’ve covered since I left Cairns, so I got an early night ready to start exploring the next day.

I spent most of the next morning wondering around the city getting my bearings and generally sight seeing. I ended up in one of Melbourne’s many parks and found “Sinclair’s Cottage”. This was home to the grounds keeper, James Sinclair, who had worked and lived in the park at the start of the 1800’s. I took that as a good sign.

I soon found myself at the Melbourne Museum. The variety of exhibits here was astonishing. There was on one the human body, which contained actually body parts donated by the medical department at the university. There were also exhibits about evolution as well as one dedicated to the native animal, bird and insect species of Australia, which contained many stuffed examples. All a bit creepy! The museum also had a really cool 3D cinema showing a number of short films about various subjects. The final exhibition was devoted to Aboriginal history and culture and was deeply moving and very informative.

Back at the hostel, I spent my evening having a few drinks with one of the lads from my room. Richard, who was from Scotland, had been in Melbourne for a couple of weeks supposedly looking for work but not really getting very far with it. He was, however, able to give me a load of advice about stuff to see and do, which is always handy.

I woke the next morning, feeling a little tender, and headed straight for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. There was a visiting exhibition about optical illusions, a lot of which frankly messed my head up.

I was in the museum most of the morning and then moved on to Melbourne’s very impressive war memorial. Originally built to remember all the citizens of the state of Victoria who were killed in World War 1, it now commemorates all Australian loses since 1901. I spent a good bit of time walking around the memorial and reading all the information. Rather a moving experience it has to be said.

Finally I visited the National Gallery of Victoria. Again, there was a wide variety of exhibitions being displayed. From 18th & 19th century European watercolours to a collection of trainers and how they have evolved over the years. The NGV is definitely one of the best galleries I have been in, it’s was just so varied.

I have spent most of my time in, and around, the city centre so the next morning I decided to go a little further a field and ended up in an area of Melbourne called St. Kilda. It is here where a lot of people come to enjoy the sunny weather as it has one of the city’s main beaches. I spent about 4 and a half hours walking around St. Kilda and following the coast line back up towards the city centre. By the end of it I was shattered so had a rest in the hostel before heading out again in the evening to see Melbourne at night.

The Australian Open was in town so I spent some time sat in Federation Square (the tourist centre of Melbourne) watching the men’s semi-final on a huge screen with about 500 other people before heading back over to the war memorial to see it illuminated at night.

The next day, 26th January was Australia Day, a public holiday over here. As a result most of the main streets in Melbourne were closed off for the morning and there was loads going on throughout the day. I decided against actually planning what I would do and where I would go as there was just so much. Instead I just headed out to see what I could find. My first stop was the Botanical Gardens were I found a vintage car show with some real classics being shown. There were also food stalls, stages with live bands on and hundreds of people all enjoying the beautiful weather. I then headed over to the Treasury Gardens, nearer the centre of town, where I found a celebration of Aboriginal culture and equal rights.

After lunch I called my friend Dave who is from Melbourne. Dave is one of the lads that I met when I was up in Noosa and we had arranged to meet up for Australia Day. A group of about 8 or 9 of us ended up going to a huge open air concert, which is run every year. It took place in Melbourne’s open air arena and was a dance festival starting at noon and carrying on until 10pm. I had a really great time with Dave and his mates, we even ended up in the VIP area because somebody knew somebody who work for somebody! Well along those lines anyway.We all had a good laugh and once it ended we all headed down to a bar in St. Kilda where Dave works and the celebrations continued.

 I finally rolled into bed at about 4:30 in the morning but was up early the next morning as I had a promise to keep. Back home at my work in the UK there is a small, but dedicated, group of us who watch Neighbours every lunch time at work. In honour of that I HAD to go on the Neighbours Tour and actually see Ramsey Street. There were about 15 of us in the bus, all from the UK and all excited as hell. But before we even set off we all got to meet and have our photos taken with Kym Valentine who played Libby Kennedy on the show. Now I know that probably doesn’t mean a lot to some of you but trust me it was a big deal! Then on to Ramsey Street, which is tiny!!! It looks so much bigger on TV but it really is so small. It all felt surreal but very memorable.

I spent the rest of the day recovering from the night before before having one last look around town. This is my last night in Australia. Tomorrow I fly over to New Zealand. I've really enjoyed myself in Oz and will definitely come back at some point. But for now I’m looking forward. Let’s see what New Zealand brings.